Satala Aphrodite

Satala Aphrodite

The head and hand of the Satala Aphrodite on display in the British Museum
Material Bronze
Size head: 35.5 x 31 x 23.6 cm[1]
Created 1st century BC
Discovered 1872
Present location British Museum, London
Identification 1873,0820.1

The Satala Aphrodite[2] is the name given to the larger than life-size head of an ancient Hellenistic statue discovered at the site of the legionary fortress of Satala, located in the village of Sadak, Gümüşhane Province, Turkey. Acquired by the British Museum in 1873, it is on display in the museum as an example of a Hellenistic sculpture from around 100 BC in the former area of Armenia Minor. The webpage of the British Museum[2] and most Armenian scholars state it is the statue of goddess Anahit, the Armenian equivalent of Aphrodite.[3][4][5]

Discovery

In 1872, a man digging his field near the village of Sadak, in what was once the ancient Roman fortress of Satala, uncovered several bronze statue fragments including a head and a hand. The head was acquired in Constantinople by a Greek antiquities dealer called Savas Kougioumtsoglou who passed it to another dealer, Photiades, who took it to Rome where it was sold to the art dealer Alessandro Castellani, who in turn sold it to the British Museum in 1873. The hand was donated to the museum three years later. Unfortunately, the rest of the statue was never found.[2]

Description

The British Museum states that it's a "bronze head from a cult statue of Anahita in the guise of Aphrodite or Artemis."[2] The plaque at the British Museum states: "head from a bronze cult statue of Anahita, a local goddess shown here in the guise of Aphrodite, 200-100 BC, found in Satala in NE Asia Minor (Armenia Minor)".

The head is usually interpreted as representing the goddess Aphrodite and belonging to a statue from which it was torn away. The size of the head suggests that it came from a cult statue. The back of the head is considerably damaged but the face is almost undamaged. The eyes would have been originally inlaid with precious stones or glass paste. Found near the head was a bronze left hand holding a fragment of drapery; based on its style and condition it is believed to have belonged to the same statue. Based on its style, it has been dated to the middle of the 4th century BC; its low broad forehead, slightly open mouth, and intensely gazing deep-set eyes reflect the style of Scopas.[6] An alternative assessment suggests a late Hellenistic date, perhaps the 1st century BC, based on the thin-walled casting of the bronze head.[2]

Because of Satala's relative proximity to Erez, the location of the most important temple in pre-Christian Armenia dedicated to the goddess Anahit, it has been suggested by Vrej Nersessian and others that the statue had been in Satala to represent Anahit in the guise of Aphrodite.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Nersessian, Vrej (2001). Treasures from the Ark: 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Art. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. p. 114. ISBN 9780892366392.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 British Museum Collection
  3. ↑ Abrahamyan, Gayane (12 March 2012). "Armenia: Could a Goddess Influence an Election Campaign?". eurasianet.org (Open Society Institute). To the British Museum, she is “probably Aphrodite,” the Greek goddess of love and beauty. To most Armenians, she is Anahit, an ancient Armenian goddess of fertility.
  4. ↑ "Group Calls on British Museum to Return Bronze Head of Goddess Anahit". Hetq. 12 February 2012.
  5. ↑ Sakayan, Mano (18 July 2013). "The Curse of Anahit". Armenian Weekly.
  6. 1 2 Vrej Nersessian, "Treasures From The Ark", London, 2001, page 114-115.

Further reading

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